1. Field
This application relates to mobile communications based advertising. More particularly it relates to a method by which a user's mobile communications can be financed through third party advertising.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Advertising, coupled with the Internet, has spawned a wide variety of programs through which various applications, services, and information may be obtained by a user in return for permitting advertisements to be received on the users device as part of such programs. Generally such devices have been PC based. With the introduction of more powerful mobile communications devices, such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and other devices, including multi-media computing devices, these programs are available on a real time basis using mobile communication services.
There is a continuing quest by marketeers of all kinds to obtain more direct and focused access to consumers. There is a proliferation of web sites financed by pop-up ads, marketing surveys, and other similar methods by which advertisers may reach the ever expanding computer user population. Attention is now being directed to another user group represented by the mobile phone user. Access to this group is expanding based on the availability of Internet access and other channels of communication.
At the present time, mobile communications are financed using a transaction model that allocates cost, usually on a per minute price basis or per message basis, between the caller and call receiver. Since the call receiver generally shares in the cost of a communication, they are given significant control of access to their phone. This limits the use of the popular telemarketing schemes that are well established in land line based communications. It would be advantageous to provide a means by which a sponsor could obtain permission to insert ads within the context of a mobile communication.
An assortment of communication modes and related protocols are available for facilitating the distribution of advertisements as part of a mobile communication. Such modes and protocols have emerged from instant messaging applications and others. Communication modes that are derivative of instant messaging services have expanded and now include: chat capability, voice capability, text messaging, email, and other modes. Such modes and protocols are generally made available through the mobile communications network server. It is a purpose of the methods, systems, devices, and software products of this application to provide means to adapt any or all of these modes of communications so that they may be used to generate a mobile communication suitable for the distribution of advertising in return for the sponsor financing of the communication.
Other Internet based protocols, such as those that enable establishment of communication sessions between two (or more) parties, e.g. Jabber/XMPP (extensible messaging and presence protocol), (IETF standard) for example: RFC 3923, 3922, 3921, and 3920, SIP (session initiation protocol, IETF RFC 3161, 3GPP, OMA standard), and other proprietary protocols, such as IP Multimedia System (IMS), 3GPP 23.228, which shall be referred to in general as “presence based” protocols, may be particularly adaptable to advertising based financing. It is a purpose of the methods, systems, devices, and software products of this application to provide means to adapt any or all of the presence based modes and mobile communication service related protocols so that they may be used to generate a mobile communication suitable for the distribution of advertising in return for the sponsor financing of the communication.